Ireland: Rising to the challenge

A combative Eamon Dunphy is determined to build on early gains for his breakfast programme on Newstalk 106, he tells Michael Ross

At the height of the Saipan controversy before the 2002 World Cup, Eamon Dunphy got a phone call from Roy Keane, whose autobiography he was ghostwriting. After his showdown with the Ireland manager Mick McCarthy, Keane had returned to his Cheshire home and had been advised by his manager and Dunphy to grant one interview.

“Roy said, ‘There’s a guy called Tommie Gorman outside the gate. What’s he like?’ I said, ‘Tommie’s a good bloke. He’s a news reporter, he won’t mess you around’. Of course, Tommie went in and lost the run of himself.”

(Gorman became highly emotional while interviewing Keane, beseeching him to consider the wrong done “to those poor people who saved their money, who follow Ireland, who love you”.) “So later I get another call. ‘F*** you, I thought you said that guy was all right. If he’s the good guy, what are the bad guys